Dell's XPS 14 (9440) launched earlier this year as a replacement for the XPS 15, pushing the boundaries of Windows laptop design with its updated look. Beyond the lattice-free keyboard, seamless haptic touchpad, and premium materials that give it a futuristic look, it's considered an AI PC thanks to the Intel Core Ultra processor (CPU) with NPU.
The XPS lineup is easy to recommend to practically anyone save for the fact that the laptops don't usually come cheap. Prices typically start at about $1,500 and climb from there, so I'm always on the lookout for discounts. Luckily, Dell frequently chops the price of its most popular laptops; in this case, it has shaved off $500 (a third of the price!) from the total, dropping it down to $999.99.
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Dell XPS 14 (9440) review highlights — Why this laptop is so good
Coming in as one of our favorite AI PCs released this year isn't easy, yet the XPS 14 (9440) holds the title as the best 14-inch option out there. It might not have the most powerful Neural Processing Unit (NPU) on the market to handle Copilot+ tools, but for many people that won't matter in the face of everything else it perfects.
Windows Central Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino reviewed the XPS 14 (9440) shortly after its early 2024 launch, remarking:
"The Dell XPS 14 is my favorite laptop of 2024 so far. For years, I've noted in my reviews how 14-inch laptops are the sweet spot for most people, and because bezels have shrunk, they're now not much larger than 13-inch ones."
Even the laptop's drawbacks, including the average battery life, aren't major. Rubino continues:
"The only bad thing I can say is that battery life is not mindblowing, but it can be pretty good, too, or rather, it's much better than expected. It still trails Apple's MacBook line and likely Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite processors, but the former doesn't do Windows (and is a boring design)."
Despite a 4.5-star rating and a Windows Central Best Award, another drawback discovered while testing the laptop was a divisive design. To put it bluntly, you're either going to love it or hate it.
The XPS 14's entry into Dell's premium lineup brought the futuristic look and features that we first experienced in the Dell XPS 13 Plus. The lattice-free keyboard has minimal spacing between keycaps, the function buttons along the top are capacitive touch, and the haptic touchpad is hidden in a seamless glass palm rest. It makes for a beautiful machine, but those who often use function buttons might find the touch replacement annoying. In the same vein, it might take some time to figure out where the touchpad borders lie.
Looking at the rest of the PC, it has an excellent webcam with access to Windows Studio Effects, its quad speakers pump out quality audio, and even the more basic FHD+ display keeps your eyes happy.
As mentioned, the usual $1,500 starting price is relatively steep. But that's at least been easily remedied with the $500 discount that Dell is currently offering. This model includes Intel Arc graphics, but you can easily change that to an NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU and still save $550.
